More than meets the eye
by Aya-Airi
Summary: The reasone why a mere human was traveling with him, why he protected it, why he cared for it - seemingly beyond reason, incomprehendible, invisible. But sometimes there is more than meets the eye. A OS about the parent-child-relationship sesshomaru/rin


Hello everyone,

And welcome to my first English one shot in the inu-yasha-universe. This little piece of work was meant as a gift for a fellow writer over at a German side who wanted something canon about Lord Sesshomaru and his ward Rin. I really tried to make his thought plausible and I dare say that I don't think I failed completely. But it's best if you decide that for yourself. You definitely shouldn't expect a shipping here. By the by, I'd be glad if you could point out mistakes of any kind to me. I didn't find a beta reader for this one yet, and I'm not quite sure about some sentences in here.

Greetings, Aya-Airi

Disclaimer: No Character belongs to me, they and their stories belong to Rumiko Takahashi. The rest has come from my mind.

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**More than meets the eye **

Humans.

A pathetic species.

No useful instincts at all.

No sense.

Only driven by wants and lusts.

They dared to call his species the demonic, the animalic; but it was theirs acting like a scabious and mangy pack of beasts.

He despised humans.

Indeed.

But not from the very beginning.

In his early years his honourable father had tried to give him an understanding of humans and their ways. He tried to show him a strength they possessed which his own species failed to achieve in most cases.

They had a thing his father called a ‚loving heart'.

They were lead by their wants and the were incapable of thinking rational.

But sometimes this was - according to his honourable father - no weakness, but rather a strong point of this lesser species.

And so he tried.

Watching the humans for centuries and centuries.

Watching them fighting wars against their brothers.

Watching them abusing and mistreating their women and whelps.

Watching them ravishing, pillaging, killing.

And seeing that they not only were lacking sense and reason and but also conscience and honour.

Honour.

A concept given to him as early as his honourable mother's milk.

Everything in those earthly realms they were walking upon was subjected to laws of nature and the only thing that could be weapon and armour against any of those was honour.

And this Sesshoumaru had treasured his honour.

He was the most honest among Youkai.

He was the most proud among Youkai.

He was the most honourable among Youkai.

But to those humans he was nothing but a beast resembling their form.

They hated him, they shunned him, they condemned him; and after the death of his most honourable father he no longer saw a reason not to reciprocate those feelings towards them.

But it seemed that his years of watching those humans didn't show him everything about the lesser species by far.

Humans were clearly foolish but they tend to mistake this naivety readily for courage.

They didn't think a lot afore acting or talking upon a matter and deemed it fit to call this 'Backbone'.

They didn't know the right amount of fright and many seemed to be even proud of this fact.

Humans managed to puzzle this Sesshoumaru.

Him, the lord of the west.

Why was it that a foolish human wench had been stepping in his way with the fang of his honourable father, though it was quite evident (if not painfully obvious) that it would only bring her imminent death?

Why was it that this Huntress who lost everything because of Youkai was working side by side with Youkai and not trying to kill them on first sight?

Why was it that this little human girl thought to try and help him repeatedly, bringing him worthless trash to eat day by day?

Why was it that she was smiling in spite of her bruises and came back to where he was lying and regenerating his youki?

Why was it that she didn't fear him?

Why was it that she seemed to like him?

He, the lord of the west, was incapable of finding answerers.

He wondered why a whelp, a pub, clearly mistreated by those of her own kind was being so strangely open towards this Sesshoumaru, though he was much more of a danger by thousand times to her, to the whole village?

Why was it that this little, frail entity in need of protection seemed to think that she should take care of him, the Daiyoukai?

He wondered and was asking those questions in silence but he would have just let them be, like quite so many things that were not worthy to grasp his interest for a longer time.

He had ben brought to the conclusion that there were things he would never quite understand. Not that that pleased him in anyway, but he acknowledged it.

He simply assumed that the whelp was not normal.

It never talked, it beared everything in silence and it seemed to feel unsettling form of affection towards a beast.

Something he wouldn't need to understand. He would have just condone it.

He would have continued his travels with his servant.

If there wouldn't have been this change that seemed to have affected him.

He didn't listen to his sense.

He listened to his feeling.

A feeling telling that he owed this whelp something.

A feeling of guilt.

A foreign sensation to this Sesshoumaru.

Feelings of guilt were incommensurable with his honour.

Who felt guilt acknowledged a fault.

To have erred offended his honour.

But what would have offended his honour even more would have been, if he would have been at fault and not taken responsibility for it.

Therefore …

…He saved her.

A human child.

A whelp.

A girl.

Nothing but a lesser entity.

Tiny, frail, naive.

But sometimes there is more than meets the eye.

He was reminded of the words of his father when he saw her dull eyes flooded with life, becoming clear again, looking up to him.

They lingered in his mind when he tightened his hold on the fragile creature in his arm when she smiled.

A simple smile, so unfitting, so contrary to the blood on her body, as if she wanted to belie the pain she undoubtedly must have felt.

They had a strength, his father has said.

A strength that one couldn't behold the child.

Feelings of guilt were foreign to him.

He wouldn't have taken her with him just because of guilt.

But there was something that made him do it. Something very alike.

Responsibility.

He was the ruler of the west.

His honourable father had handed the entire west to him.

He carried the responsibility of this realm and now he carried the responsibility fort he child, too.

He had brought her back from death, it has been his duty, his debt.

And from this moment on he was responsible for her.

For her new life.

And she thanked him most sincerely.

It was a strange act of those humans that he never quite understood.

She had sung in a silent manner. Few words, in the beginning, but growing more and growing louder with the time. She was blooming.

She started to dance to her own voice.

She started to pick flowers from the wayside.

She started to make coronals out of them.

She started to laugh.

She started to tell him things.

She started to share her new life with him.

And while she seemed to instinctively know that he would do nothing of that sort it didn't seem to bother her in any way.

Her rosy cheeks glowed when he accepted the coronals hanging on Ah-Uhn.

Her eyes were sparkling when she presented him proudly new dances she made up, though he stayed silent and only watched.

Her black hair was swirling around her tiny form and representing her more and more bubbly character.

And Jaken started to complain.

The mute girl would be a bother and an imposition upon his lord, he said.

He begged him to get rid of her, on what ever way would please him, but a glance of his master silenced him effectively.

He wouldn't tolerate a word against this whelp.

Again something he could quite grasp.

When she would lay down to sleep close to him he wasn't tolerating it.

When she looked up to him and smiled warmly he wasn't tolerating it.

When she was chattering without finding and he wasn't tolerating it.

Her trust, her affection, her naivety.

He wasn't simply tolerating it.

It moved something in him.

He supposed that it was a form of affection of it's own.

He would protect her, but not out of dept or responsibility.

Why he could quite say.

Butt his tiny creature meant something to him.

She might be frail.

She might be irrational.

She might be ridiculous unafraid and naive.

But she was holding a strength.

Her human heart.

Small but strong beating in her chest.

And he wouldn't allow it to become silent once again.

He would preserve her heart.

And nothing else was what she was doing.

It would seem that her strength had been capable of toughing his own heart and now she was holding it in her tiny palm.

He would never understand it.

She was a mere human.

She was affecting his honour.

But for the first time in his long life this Sesshoumaru might understand his honourable father's words.

Sometimes there was more then meets the eye.

More in a tiny human.

More in a Daiyoukai.

And more in between than any honour could balance out.


End file.
